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Holy Family students go on heritage hunt
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The seventh-graders of Linda Taylor’s Holy Family social studies classroom took a look at a model of the world they explored for their International Day project.
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The students of Taylor’s classroom posed in front of the traditional foods they brought into the school for International Day. The students are, from left, Jenna Perchak, John Koutsourais, Evan Leek, Kristen Appel, Brennan Bizon, and Breanna Thompson.
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Seventh-graders Brennan Bizon (left) and Breanna Thompson showed off their international day reports. Bizon found out relatives of his were royalty in Ireland, while Thompson found that one of her uncles helped build the atomic bomb.
By SARAH FOOR
Before finishing his International Day report, Holy Family student Brennan Bizon had no idea that his ancestors many generations ago were royalty in Ireland.
In fact, the students in Linda Taylor’s seventh-grade social studies class at Holy Family School each had something interesting to learn about their own family history. The class shared its findings with each other, along with the foods of their heritage, on May 20.
The work for International Day begins two months before, over Easter break, so students can contact and chat with family elders to complete their heritage report. The projects coincide with a study on world cultures in Taylor’s classroom.
Taylor hopes the information her students gather will be important for years to come.
“I think, at this age, they might not even consider the importance of their backgrounds. By the time they might, some of those older ancestors may be gone. It really is a unique opportunity for the students to learn more about what makes them who they are,” Taylor noted.
For lunch that day, the students gave up their school meals and feasted on strudel, Irish soda bread, bruschetta and pierogis, among others. The food the students provided could be foods of their heritage or recipes important to their families.
Along with Bizon’s royal background, seventh-grader Breanna Thompson discovered that two of her great-uncles were operatives in the military.
“One uncle completed really secret missions during World War II. Another was involved in the building of the atomic bomb,” Thompson said.
“It’s been an amazing year for international day. The students simply wouldn’t have found these extraordinary facts unless they started looking,” Taylor said.